Twin Courtyard Houses, Chennai

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Twin Courtyard Houses, Chennai

These houses sit on a large narrow plot as two separate buildings, each with a central courtyard that floods them with light. The two buildings are connected with a bridge on the first floor. The first building houses sunken parking. A raised balcony at the ground level and a terrace in the upper floor NE corner are the elements through which the building interacts with the outside world, being located on a main street in a suburban residential area. The inward looking house centers around a courtyard, that has a retractable glass-roof to keep the elements out when needed. Different functions are located at different levels, all catered to by a connecting semi-open corridor that uses traditional wooden columns.

The rear building has a two-bedroom unit on the ground floor and a duplex unit with three bedrooms and a study spread over the first & second floor. It has a double-height living room which is overlooked by the study and bedrooms on the second floor. The visual expanse of the space from the top floor extends all the way to the bridge connecting the two buildings and creates a private sanctuary for its inhabitants. The openings and roof scape was designed to maximize the sun-angle for Chennai to ensure that the houses were brightly lit through out the day and that close proximity of these buildings did not hinder their access to light and ventilation.

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